Hewlett Packard Co, which launched new products Monday in an effort to reach the top of the PC vendors heap (see related story), is making progress to that end. Jacques Clay, vice president and general manager of HP’s extended desktop business unit proudly points out that over the past five years HP has become the fastest growing PC company in the world, with an average unit growth rate of 65% in that time period. Unit shipments rose 72% during the first quarter alone, according to Dataquest research. That kind of growth has lifted it from number 21 in the worldwide PC market in 1991 to number four today, having recently overtaken Packard Bell NEC and Toshiba Corp. HP already claims the number one spots in PC workstations and Windows CE palmtops, neither being the most lucrative market in the world of hardware. It also says that based on the latest results, it is number two in the US retail market and number three in the corporate desktop market. It’s still got a ways to go, though, as evidenced by preliminary figures from International Data Corp which show Compaq Computer Corp sold 2.7 million PCs last quarter, compared to 1.4 million for HP. And HP isn’t the only one growing at an above average rate. Dell Computer Corp, which ranks third in the world, saw first-quarter growth in league with HP’s, at 62%.
